Sarez Lake (russian: Сарезское озеро; tg, Сарез кӯл, Sarez Kūl) is a lake in
Rushon District tg, Ноҳияи Рӯшон
, nickname =
, motto =
, image_skyline =
, imagesize =
, image_caption =
, image_flag =
, flag_size =
, image_seal ...
of
Gorno-Badakhshan
Gorno-Badakhshan, officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region,, abbr. / is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan, in the Pamir Mountains. It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area, but only two percen ...
province,
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
. Length about , depth few hundred meters, water surface elevation about above sea level and volume of water is more than . The mountains around rise more than above the lake level.
The lake formed in 1911, after a great
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
, when the
Murghab River was blocked by a big landslide. Scientists believe that the
landslide dam formed by the earthquake, known as the
Usoi Dam, is unstable given local
seismicity
Seismicity is a measure encompassing earthquake occurrences, mechanisms, and magnitude at a given geographical location. As such, it summarizes a region's seismic activity. The term was coined by Beno Gutenberg and Charles Francis Richter in ...
, and that the terrain below the lake is in danger of catastrophic flood if the dam were to fail during a future earthquake. The Usoi Dam wall survived a localised 7.2 magnitude earthquake, the
2015 Tajikistan earthquake, on the 7th December 2015 with no visible signs of deterioration.
Shadau Lake is a small water body southwest of the Usoi Dam and west of Sarez Lake.
Formation
The formation of Sarez Lake is described in the book by Middleton and Thomas:
[Robert Middleton and Huw Thomas, ''Tajikistan and the High Pamirs'', Odyssey, 2008, , ]
References
External links
Map of the Usoi Dam - Sarez Lake, Scale 1:110'000NASA Earth Observatory photoSarez Risk Mitigation Project
{{Authority control
Lakes of Tajikistan
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region
Landslide-dammed lakes
Landslides in Tajikistan
Landslides in 1911